What do Time Lords dream of?
by kawaifus
Summary: Rory can't sleep, so he and the Doctor discuss dreams. & do a little more than that.


Rory couldn't sleep. He looked across the bed at Amy, who was sleeping peacefully. iMaybe some tea will help/i. He thought, and by 'help', he meant deliver him a dreamless sleep. The dreams had rarely bothered him at first, he couldn't remember them when he woke up. Now the dreams closed in on him every night. Gripping him, always lurking behind closed eyelids. Cracks in time, ready to swallow him, or Sirens chasing him down. Old ladies. It was always something. He was properly scared now. He sat up and grabbed a blanket from the floor, pulling it around his shoulders. He had to get out. The room was giving him the creeps.

The TARDIS was always kind to him. He liked him, this he knew. It steered him straight most of the time, he hardly got lost anymore. That made it easy to find the kitchen. He paused at the threshhold. A shuffling noise was coming from inside the kitchen. He opened the door a crack, and peered inside. The Doctor was inside, sitting on the counter. He was in a pair of pale blue pajamas, and a dark blue dressing gown. He was starring into a mug of tea he was holding, the steam rising up to his face. His eyes were red, as if he had been crying.

Rory's breath caught in his throat. iThe Doctor, crying?/i

It was a strange sight. So very strange to see him like this. Where was that confident smile? The know-it-all aura? He wasn't a mad, genius alien anymore. Not now. Now, he was a sad vulnerable soul. Sitting, crying, all alone. Rory had the feeling he was seeing the rarest sight of them all. Not only the last of the Time Lords, the last of the Time Lords- vulnerable, and crying.

Some part of Rory wanted to go back to his room, to pretend he hadn't seen this. Another part told him to confront the Doctor. The later won. "Doctor?" Rory opened the door all the way, and stepped inside. The Doctor looked up and locked eyes with him, red, watery eyes boring into his. "Oh...hello" The Doctor said quietly. "I didn't hear you come in. Tea?" he kept his gaze down, trying to hide his emotions.

"Doctor, have you been crying?" Rory asked plainly. "Me? No..no..just..allergies..What brings you out here?" the Doctor asked him, looking up to lock eyes with him again. Rory decided to be honest, he had someone to vent to, after all. "I couldn't sleep...nightmares."

He had expected the Doctor to joke it off. To say it was just a dream, and send him off to bed. He did not expect the Doctor to reply grimmly; "Join the club."

Rory was stunned for a moment. "You? Really?" he asked. The Doctor looked up at him again. "What do you dream of, Rory?" he asked. Rory took a deep breath. Why couldn't he be honest. This was the Doctor, the same man he had seen crying; however much he tried to deny it. "

"...Monsters." He said quietly. "The ones we've seen. The ones who've killed me. I'm always afraid they'll come back and I'll be dead. Dead for good, leaving Amy all alone." He didn't look the Doctor in the face. He looked down at his bare feet.

"Don't I know it." said the Doctor quietly. "The universe is a beautiful place, such great mountains, and craters, and things. But, it's scary too. Such scary monsters and memories, ones that wait until the night to haunt. It's perfectly normal to be afraid. " he was speaking so quietly, as if talking more too himsef than to Rory.

Rory couldn't believe it. The Doctor, scared? The Doctor always handled himself with such confidence, always saving the day when all hope was lost. He seemed hardly fazed by one adventure, before suggesting the next. But Rory knew more noe, than ever that looks were decieving.

"What do Time Lords dream of?" the question was out of Rory's mouth before he could stop it. The Doctor put his mug on the counter and stood up. For a moment Rory was afraid he had offended him, and he was leaving, Instead he whispered so quietly; "I can show you." Rory nodded. He wasn't sure was the Doctor meant, but he desperatley wanted to know.

"Close your eyes" the Doctor said. Rory did. He felt the Doctor slowly put his hands on the sides of Rory's face and slowly touch his forehead to his.

He was watching now. Watching pictures flash past his vision.

iTwo boys in robes running through a field of red grass.

A man with a dark beard and hair, laughing loudly, evily.

Flames, an entire world burning and the call of a million people.

Daleks.

A blonde women. Kissing the Doctor.

A beach. "Will I ever see you again?" "You can't" "I love you!" "I.."

A red haired women leaving the TARDIS. For the last time.

A man in the Doctors arms. The same boy in the grass fields, the same bearded man. "Please...please just regenerate, we're the only ones left!" "I win!"

A blonde man. The same man. "Can you hear them? This noise Doctor..."

"I don't know what I'd be without that noise." "I don't know what I'd be without you."

"Get out of the way!"/i

They separated and Rory took a step back.

"I didn't know ithat's/i what Time Lords dreamed of!" All of those people, they had flashed past quicker than he had time to register, but he felt as if had known them all his life.

The Doctor didn't say anything, he just shoved his hands in his pockets and looked past him. He had started crying again.

"I'm so sorry" said Rory. What else could he say. He knew the Doctor gained so much knowlege and expeirience throughtout his travels, but he had never thought of how much loss and heartbreak came as well.

The Doctor rubbed his face, trying to stop the tears. "They levae me. All of them. In the end they break my hearts and there's nothing I can do but live on, they forget me and grow old. It's the curse of the Time Lords."

Rory didn't know what to say. One question was bugging him.

"Who was that man?" he asked. The Doctor put his hands in his pockets again.

"The Master. A Time Lord." he answered. "But I thought you were the last of them?" said Rory. The Doctor looked into Rory's eyes again. "I am now..."

"There's so much I don't know about you." said Rory truthfully.

"And so much you never will" The Doctor said, even more truthfully.

"There's so much I wish you'd tell me"

"There's so much I wish I could"

And before Rory could stop it, the Doctor closed the space between them, and kissed him. Shock was Rory's first response, then understanding. Here they were, showing their fears and losses, having only each other. Leaving themselves so vulnerable, now there was nothing to hide.

Lips were on lips again, slowly melting into each other. Tongues exploring each other's mouths. When they finally broke apart, it was only for a second, before Rory pulled their lips crashing together again.

When Rory pulled him closer and slipped his warm hands under the Doctor's shirt, he felt a familiar stir in his anatomy, he remembered all the times with Koschei, and all the almost-times with Jack.

"Wait!" he had to force himself to break the contact of their lips and push Rory away slightly. "What's wrong?" Rory seemed slightly hurt.

"We can't do this now." said the Doctor.

"Why not?" asked Rory.

"What happens tomorrow? What will we think of when he look back at this?"

"Let's not think about that." Rory looked him in the eyes seriously. "Just give me tonight. Please." He needed this. The Doctor needed this. His poor Doctor, who had seen so much death and sadness.

The Doctor gave in, somewhat gladly. He grasped the front of Rory's shirt and pulled him in for a kiss.

"Tonight" the Doctor breathed.

"Tonight" Rory agreed.

iEND./i


End file.
